Madrid trade unions say several theatres undermined the right to strike by moving performances scheduled for 11 November to Monday 9 November or cancelling them. Stage Entertainment later reversed its position, allowing workers on its musicals to strike. The Auditorio Nacional and Teatro Real, along with ATG Entertainment productions, had made no changes, according to the account. The 11 November action is a nationwide, 24-hour housing general strike scheduled to run from midnight to midnight.
The dispute forms part of a wider manifesto, El 11N, la cultura también para, signed by more than 800 cultural figures by 6 November. The signatories include writers Alana S. Portero and David Uclés, filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, actor and writer Carlos Bardem, philosopher Paul B. Preciado, musician Nacho Vegas and filmmaker Laura Hojman. The campaign also includes more than 70 publishers, around 100 bookshops, 70 cultural spaces and organisations, plus more than 500 sector workers, according to El País. The signatories back the housing strike called for 11 November and argue that cultural work depends on access to both homes and working spaces. The strike, promoted by the Confederación de Sindicatos de Inquilinas and supported by unions including CGT, CNT, CCOO, UGT, ELA, LAB and CIG, links housing demands with concerns about wages and the cost of living.
The manifesto calls for stable housing with indefinite contracts, rent caps in stressed areas and an end to evictions. It also seeks measures to prevent and punish racist discrimination in access to homes and to commercial or artistic production spaces. Its cultural demands include regulation of commercial rents, action against property speculation and protection for independent cultural venues facing displacement. It calls for decent conditions for freelancers and cultural workers, an adapted self-employed regime and tax system for workers with intermittent income, continued cultural-sector legislative reforms, including the pending Cinema Law, and respect for union rights and the right to strike in cultural institutions.
The organisers cite a survey by the Association of Madrid Bookshops: more than eight in ten bookshops rent their premises, while only 14.3% say they have guarantees of remaining in their current location. They warn that pressure on rents threatens bookshops, rehearsal rooms, theatres and workshops. The housing strike’s organisers say its central demand is to reduce rents and end the treatment of housing as a business.
More than 700 workers have signed, alongside publishers including Altamarea, Barlin Libros, consonni, Dos Bigotes, ediciones comisura, Barret, Hoja de Lata and Sexto Piso. By 6 November, organisers reported that more than 20,000 civil-society organisations had backed the housing strike. A separate labour-mobilisation account reported support from more than 3,600 workplace groups, including works councils, union sections and workers’ assemblies. A separate account of labour action in Madrid covered a university strike; this manifesto focuses on housing and conditions in cultural workplaces.
CGT has called a demonstration at the Teatro Real for Monday 9 November, two days before the planned 24-hour strike. The theatre’s works committee has reported the alleged breach of strike rights to the Labour Inspectorate. CCOO and UGT have also urged massive participation in the nationwide action, describing it as peaceful.
